On January 14, 2015, it was announced that longtime Whalers owner Peter Karmanos had sold the team to IMS USA, Inc., with the intention to move the franchise to Flint and the Perani Arena.[1][2] The purchase and relocation was approved by the OHL on February 2, 2015.[3][4]

On November 8th, the owner of the Flint Firebirds fired the head coach, John Gruden after the team pulled out a come from behind overtime victory over the defending Memorial Cup champions earlier. According to published reports the issue was the amount of ice time that owner, Rolf Nilson's 17 year old son was receiving. Upon hearing of the removal of the coach the whole 24 members of the team quit, not wanting to play for anyone else but Coach Gruden. Among those quitting the team were the owner's son, Håkon Nilsen. The whole team went into the team's front office and threw their jerseys on the ground, quit the team and then walked out. OHL commissioner David Branch was scheduled to meet with the ownership of the franchise on Monday November 9th to try to salvage anything out of what is a very bad situation for all involved. After the meeting the owner issued a release through the OHL's website stating that he made "an irresponsible mistake" and the coaches were reinstated and meetings were held between the league commissioner, ownership, coaches and players.

The Firebirds organization made news headlines again on February 17th when the owner fired Coach (and now GM since January) Gruden and assistant coach Dave Karpa and named director of operations Sergei Kharin interim head coach. The way the handling of the terminations was handled (mainly involving communication to the players and the league) has lead to the league looking into the terminations. Commissioner Branch was in contact with the team's captain, Alex Peters and was planning on meeting with the rest of the players and parents within a few days. At the time of the firings the team was in 9th place in the conference with a 11-31-6 record and lost 8 of their last ten games. The team was actually on a pace for a better record than in 2014-15.

The league made the following announcements after the initial phase of their investigation: The owner and his appointees on the management and coaching staff (including interim coach Sergei Kharin). The team is to provide counseling services for the players and that the management team is to co-operate with the commissioner and the league for the rest of the investigation. The league and the commissioner have said they will take any appropriate actions to remedy the situation.

On April 6, 2016 the league announced that owner Rolf Nilsen was suspended for five years and fined $250,000 as a result of an investigation conducted by the league. The report stated that Nilsen had violated an agreement he signed with the league on November 11, 2015. The team was also penalized with the forfeiture of the team's first round pick in the OHL Priority Selection (the third pick overall in the draft). The release stated if Nilsen violates any of the terms of the order from the league he will be required to sell 100% of his ownership interest in the Firebirds. Nilsen may file for re-instatement to participate in hockey operations after 3 years. The league further announced that Joe Birch who took over the hockey operations in February will continue in the position and additional staff (head coach, GM, and other hockey operational staff) would be named shortly. The team will continue to be under the stewardship, supervision and direction of the league commissioner.

Although there was sentiment towards resurrecting the Flint Generals nickname which had been used by two past teams in the city, the OHL quickly nixed that idea because of the Oshawa Generals using that name.[5] Likewise, a popular suggestion was the Flint Tropics, after the fictional American Basketball Association team of that name in the 2008 movie Semi-Pro.[6] However, after various others voiced their displeasure at their team possibly being named after a comedy movie's protagonist team, and the chance of the novelty wearing off after a while, the name did not make the list of finalist choices.[7][8]